Proto-Superior: Scroud, Demon of Squalor

By Douglas Muir

Squalor, n. filthiness and degradation from neglect or poverty; a filthy
and wretched condition or quality. -- American Heritage Dictionary

True poverty does not come from God. -- Yiddish proverb

History and Nature

Scroud is that rare but dangerous thing: an intelligent, thoughtful
Calabite. Like Haagenti, he worked his way up from the ranks over many
centuries; like Valefor, he claimed his Word by eliminating the previous
Word-holder. He once worked for Mammon, but cleverly switched sides just
before that Prince's collapse to Minor Superior status. Haagenti rewarded
him with a Barony, and he has prospered ever since.

Scroud's Word is "Squalor", and he serves it well. The previous holder, a
Shedite, was an old-fashioned craftsman, corrupting slumlords and housing
officials one at a time. Scroud operates on a much larger scale. His
favored techiques include things like running highways through
working-class neighborhoods, promoting government policies that spread
neglect and decay, and encouraging the rural poor in Third World countries
to emigrate to urban "superslums". Scroud is very much in touch with
politics, and works to create (bad) government policies and incentives as
much as he does to spread Squalor on the ground.

"Squalor" means "a filthy or degraded condition, usually associated with
poverty", and this Word has been growing steadily in strength for the last
century. Three billion people live in poverty, and more than a billion
live in what the statisticians call 'utter' poverty -- absolute squalor.
As slums, disease, overpopulation and misery have spread across the world,
Scroud has steadily grown in power.

His Word has secondary connotations, too; a wealthy celebrity with a secret
drug addiction may be living in utter moral squalor, as may a powerful
politician with a taste for naive interns. The Word overlaps with
Gluttony, Greed, Lust and Drugs, but stands alone as well; Scroud believes
it truly has the potential to support a Princehood, and he may be right.

Scroud has all the Calabite love of destruction, but he has channelled it
into the destruction and degradation of human environments. Unusually
patient for a member of his Band, he takes particular pride in Third World
megalopolises like Mexico City, Cairo, and Calcutta. Watching (for
example) New Delhi gradually decay from a clean, charming, tidy little
colonial capital to a "superslum" of twelve million people, the vast
majority living in unsafe housing without running water or medical care...
well, it's an act of destruction huge enough to make any Calabite tremble
with joy and longing, even if it did take decades to accomplish.
Hiroshima? Dresden? Pah! Scroud privately believes that he's destroyed
cities on a vaster scale than Belial, and ruined far more human lives in
the process.

Present Status

To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is
like advising a man who is starving to eat less. -- Oscar Wilde

Hell is full of dirty housewives. -- Japanese proverb

Scroud is one of Haagenti's most powerful servants. He has, depending on
the campaign, somewhere between a several dozen and a several hundred
lesser demons working for him. Several lesser Word-Bound are among his
Servitors; the demon of Slums works for him, as do the demons of Shoddy
Construction, Tainted Water, Filthy Restaurants, and Potholes. He
particularly likes Balseraphs (who can work effectively in the political
sphere) and Shedim (who can spread Squalor effectively, one at a time).

As a Calabite, Scroud carries Discord. He is Pallid (2 or 3) and has the
Aura of Entropy (5 or 6). The latter Discord typically manifests itself as
damage to the infrastructure and architecture around him. When Scroud
enters a house, lightbulbs pop, plumbing clogs, the carpets go nappy and
the roof develops leaks. If he stays long enough, the walls will begin to
slip out of alignment. Scroud can turn a lovely house into a neighborhood
eyesore just by dropping in and staying for tea.

On the Corporeal plane, Scroud typically manifests as a filthy, stinking
beggar, dressed in rags. He can clean up sometimes, and present as a
lobbyist or a rich landlord, but his Discords make this difficult to keep
up for long -- and anyhow, he has Servitors for that.

Plans

A rich man, and an ashtray -- the more they collect, the more disgusting
they get. -- Japanese proverb

Sin is geographical. -- Bertrand Russell

Scroud believes that he's ready to make the jump to Princehood any time.
However, several obstacles stand in his way.

The biggest one, of course, is Haagenti. The "Big Guy" may have fought his
own way up from the bottom, but that doesn't mean he's going to encourage
his own Servitors to copy him. If Haagenti finds out that Scroud is
bidding for a Princedom, he will -- at a minimum -- strip half his Forces
away and whack him with some serious Discord. More likely he'll simply
crash through a wall, Kool-Aid style, and devour this upstart whole. He's
done it before. The Prince of Gluttony wants powerful Servitors, but
potential rivals are menu items.

In fact, Haagenti already suspects that something is up. Those Band
attunements are a tipoff, as is the growing strength of Scroud's Word
generally. He's watching his Duke carefully, and he's been noticeably
ill-tempered towards him lately. Scroud, in turn, suspects that Haagenti
suspects... it's all getting very iffy.

Scroud, like Furfur, would like to summon Lucifer and petition for his
Princedom directly; he believes he's just about ready. Unfortunately, the
Prince of Lies isn't summonable at will, and he doesn't have access to
Furfur's special Song. A trip to the Lower Hells is a frightening prospect
even for a powerful Duke. And anyhow, Scroud would like to set the stage
properly -- he'd prefer to present his petition on (say) Breadloaf Mountain
in Rio de Janeiro, overlooking the endless sea of filthy tenements,
squatter shacks, and squalid, soul-destroying favelas that have grown up
around that lovely point. Any demon who can help him with this will be
richly rewarded when/if Scroud comes into his Princedom.

Alternately, Scroud is giving serious thought to negotiating with Lilith.
As a Princess, she should know how best to contact Lucifer... and a Geas/6
might not be too high a price to pay, especially if Haagenti is slavering
down his neck.

Meanwhile, Scroud is building his defenses and playing a waiting game.

Rites and Attunements

- Cause some aspect of a human's life to become significantly more Squalid
(+1 Essence, up to 3 times/day). This could involve anything from having a
poor family's electricity cut off to making a human develop a nasty secret
addiction. The change must be a lasting one, here defined as "absent
intervention, very likely to persist for at least a month".

Demon of Squalor: Once per day, with a touch and a successful Perception roll, the demon can
discover either the fastest or the most effective (his choice) way to
introduce Squalor into something. The attunement works on individuals
("Introduce the Senator to the crooked lobbyist from the drug company,"
"Get Mrs. Jones hooked on electronic poker") or on any piece of the human
environment up to the size of a building or playground ("Get the city to
cut those trees down," "Sabotage the lock on the lobby's main door"). It's
rumoured that Scroud himself can use this attunement on neighborhoods and
even whole cities.

In addition to this general attunement, Scroud has developed specialized
attunements for three Bands:

Balseraph of Squalor (restricted): Scroud's Liars add their Ethereal
Forces to any lie which would make a human ignore, tolerate or encourage
Squalor. "This building is in great shape! It just needs a coat of
paint." "A powerful man like you is expected to have affairs."
"Congressman, your new welfare bill is brilliant. You're giving the poor
exactly what they deserve."

Calabite of Squalor (restricted): These Calabim can roll on the "subtle
destruction" table (IPG, page 39) without first taking the -4 penalty,
provided that their attacks directly create Squalor. Damaging housing and
infrastructure is the obvious application, but maiming an honest health
inspector has been known to work too.

Shedite of Squalor (restricted): Scroud's Shedim add their Corporeal forces
to their Will rolls when making a human do anything that would fulfill
Scroud's Rite (they still get Essence for the Rite, too). They are often
found inhabiting landlords, housing inspectors, and urban policy makers.

Also, these Corrupters can kill their hosts without taking dissonance, if
they do it in a sufficiently squalid manner. Some GM discretion is needed
here, but "drug overdose in a filthy alleyway" or "heart attack while
surfing child porn sites online" would probably work -- anything that would
cause the host's friends and family to turn away in heartbreak and disgust.

Relations

Scroud has been quietly cultivating contacts with other
Princes. He has even -- oh so carefully -- arranged to have some
troublesome Gluttons picked up by the Game. This is dangerous, but it's
probably moved Asmodeus from being a "probable enemy" (Squalor is a
disorderly Word, after all) to the "neutral" column.

Mammon still hates Haagenti, not so much for betraying him as for stealing
several Servitors and part of his Word. Fleurity, OTOH, is already a close
ally, as their Words work nicely together without competing.

Scroud is very wary of Kobal; his demons cooperate with the Jokers, but
Scroud himself avoids the Prince of Dark Humor as much as possible. Kobal
is Haagenti's closest ally, after all, and just too damned clever...